With the current economic challenges we are facing, it is more important than ever for archivists to advocate on behalf of archives. We are in need of gripping stories that illustrate just what an archive can do so as to capture the attention of the public. I found just such a story told in a session that I attended at SAA 2011.
In Session 408, ?Cooperation Makes It Happen: Collaboration in Museum Archives,? Dr. Alfred Lemmon spoke about his experience working at The Historic New Orleans Collection ?(http://www.hnoc.org) during and after Hurricane Katrina. While Dr. Lemmon did share lessons learned concerning disaster planning – The Historic New Orleans Collection did have a disaster plan in place at the time of Hurricane Katrina, but it was geared towards an institutional disaster, not a regional one – Dr. Lemmon focused on the ways in which The Historic New Orleans Collection served the community. As New Orleans was rebuilt, the Historic New Orleans Collection documented the experience with two initiatives launched in October 2005, barely two months after the hurricane?s devastation. One of these projects was an oral history program, and the other project documented in photographs the damage left by the hurricane. The website Katrina on the Web +5 (http://www.hnoc.org/katsite/Kat.html#) is a version of the site that was created for the exhibit City of Hope: New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina (July 18, 2006 ? January 6, 2007) that has been updated since that exhibit with information on the rebuilding.
In addition to ensuring that the events of Katrina would not be forgotten,The Historic New Orleans Collection provided stabilizing and restorative functions to the community. Cultural events held by the organization helped to create a sense of reassurance that things would return to normal. The Collection received loans of important objects from other institutions, a gesture of confidence in New Orleans?s recovery that bolstered morale of both staff and the public. There are more traditional organizational functions, but The Historic New Orleans Collection also found that people came to them for advice on what to do with their family artifacts damaged in the storm.
Dr. Lemmon?s presentation illustrated a prime example of how an archives can not only document but support the community it serves. Thankfully, an archives does not need a natural disaster as a catalyst for deeply engaging with its community. With the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrine, one might think that exhibits would not be a priority for a good while, but this story shows that exhibits can be healing tools for the community, both in terms of what they document and the comforting social structure that they provide.